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Emerging Technologies
DoD can benefit from re- search-and-development (R&D) spinoffs of the drug war that have military applications. For example, with eight to ten million shipping containers entering the United States annually and pressure to keep them moving, a technological breakthrough is being sought that will allow rapid inspections of container contents dockside and at sea. This system will have to use low energy levels to prevent damaging the container’s contents. It will have to be large enough to inspect whole containers at once, thereby avoiding the need to access the inside. This type of system would have far- reaching military applications. For example, U.S. Marine Corps guards at American embassies worldwide could use it to inspect incoming packages and vehicles. Plus, much of the antidrug technology has direct military applications and is funded by private industry.
DoD can also promote its own R&D projects by exploring their possible application in the drug war. Both the Navy and Air Force are developing a land- based, over-the-horizon (OTH) radar capability. The Navy’s ROTHR (relocatable over-the- horizon radar) and the Air Force’s OTH-B (over-the-horizon backscatter radar system) could possibly contribute to the air interdiction effort. High-tech space-based systems might also be employed to support drug interdiction operations (e.g., space surveillance, satellite communications, Satellite Navigation Set
[Global Positioning System], and SATWX information).
The Naval Research Laboratory is working on a radar system, the AN/APS-137 radar, that extends a ship’s surface detection range over the horizon and will also allow the ship to classify acquired targets by using a phenomenon called radar ducting. Ducting occurs most prominently in high humidity areas. Radar signals travel through a layer of water particles near the earth’s surface and detect contacts beyond the radar’s line of sight. The system is being tested for drug-detection applications in the Caribbean, where environmental conditions are favorable for radar ducting.
Another advantage of the APS-137 radar system is its ability to classify OTH radar contacts. The synthetic aperture radar uses the surface contact’s movement (i.e., the doppler effect) to define the contact’s outlining profile. A computer then converts the information into a video image that depicts the contact’s silhouette in pixels. With sufficient image resolution, this technology could significantly alter the way we conduct surface drug-detection patrols and antisurface warfare operations.
Another high-tech computer system that will be employed in the drug war is the video-integrated display system (VIDS). The VIDS system obtains allsource intelligence data and retransmits the information to field units. It produces a video display (snapshot) of a battle area and is inter-theater capable. VIDS was originally envisioned to be strictly strategic. But, partly because of DoD’s new drug detection responsibilities, it will now have some tactical usefulness as well. VIDS will be installed at several key drug- detection centers. VIDS terminals may also be placed on Coast Guard cutters in the near future. However, real-time input to the VIDS network requires a data-transfer capability that Coast Guard cutters lack. Consequently, in order to use VIDS tactically, Coast Guard cutters will have to operate with Navy data-link or Navy Tactical Data System-capable platforms, until they obtain this capability.
—Lieutenant Charley Diaz, U.S. Coast Guard
Navy. The Coast Guard’s major wartime responsibility is the defense of our coastal ports and waters. Critics often cite the lack of a credible homeland defense as a serious weakness of the maritime strategy. To fulfill this mission requirement, the Coast Guard has developed the Maritime Defense Zone (MDZ) concept. All U.S. forces conducting coastal defense operations in time of war will operate under the MDZ and “chop” to Coast Guard commanders on respective coasts. Coastal defense operations may include maritime air patrols, port security, defensive mining, domestic mine countermeasures, and coastal ASW and antisurface warfare. Joint antidrug operations between
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Proceedings / Naval Review 1990